Mountain West officials eye early return to fall football
Mountain West Conference university presidents moved up a scheduled Friday meeting to Thursday, a person with knowledge of the meeting told The Associated Press. It was unclear whether the Mountain West presidents would vote Thursday on any proposals, the person said.
Mountain West athletic directors are aiming for an Oct. 24 or Oct. 31 start for the football season, according to The Associated Press. The conference is close to an agreement that will provide its 12 schools with the capacity to perform daily COVID-19 antigen tests on its athletes, The Associated Press reported.
Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson told AP last week the conference would not move forward on a fall football season without its schools having the ability to test daily.
NOTRE DAME-WAKE FOREST POSTPONED BECAUSE OF VIRUS OUTBREAK >>
Saturday’s game between No. 7 Notre Dame and Wake Forest has been postponed after another seven players tested positive for COVID-19. Further, Notre Dame announced it has paused all football-related activities until further testing is complete.
“With student-athlete health and safety our primary focus, we will continue to follow our prevention protocols and ongoing testing procedures,” Fighting Irish coach Brian Kelly said in a statement. “We managed an increase in positivity rates in August, and the players handled it wonderfully.”
The postponement follows reports from earlier in the day that Notre Dame had canceled Tuesday’s practice one day after the program announced four more positive tests for COVID-19.
The school announced another seven positive cases on Tuesday.
Notre Dame announced that the process to find a makeup date for Saturday’s game at Wake Forest is underway.
Horse racing
BELMONT WINNER WON’T RUN IN
PREAKNESS >> Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law won’t run in next month’s Preakness, spoiling what would have been a highly anticipated rematch with Kentucky Derby winner Authentic.
The Preakness on Oct. 3 at Pimlico concludes this year’s reconfigured Triple Crown series, which was run out of order because of the coronavirus pandemic.
By skipping the Preakness, Tiz the Law will have 63 days between the Derby and the BC Classic, which is worth $6 million. The colt has run well off long layoffs. He’s won four races this year by a combined 16 1/2 lengths. In all, Tiz the Law has six wins in eight career starts, with both his losses coming at Churchill Downs.
Tennis
FORMER U.S. OPEN CHAMP ANDREESCU
DONE FOR SEASON >> Bianca Andreescu, last year’s U.S. Open champion, will sit out the French Open and the rest of 2020. The 20-year-old Canadian announced her decision to remain sidelined this season via a post on social media.
“I have come to the difficult decision to skip the clay court swing this year and will be taking the remainder of the season off to focus on my health and training,” Andreescu wrote.
At New York in 2019, Andreescu became the first tennis player from Canada to win a Grand Slam singles championship. She also reached a career-high ranking of No. 4 last year.
Soccer
U.S. MEN’S TEAM LIMITED TO 3 2020
MATCHES >> The U.S. men’s national team has given up trying to play matches in October due to the coronavirus pandemic and will be limited to a maximum of three games in 2020, its fewest since 1987.
The U.S. Soccer Federation said Tuesday it had abandoned its attempt to schedule home exhibition games for next month. It is attempting to schedule a pair of friendlies for Europe in November.
The team is considering a December training camp along with its January camp.
WNBA
WILSON HAS 29 POINTS AS ACES EVEN
SERIES WITH SUN >> A’ja Wilson had 29 points, seven rebounds and a career-high seven blocks to lead the topseeded Las Vegas Aces past the Connecticut Sun 83-75 to even the bestof-five playoff series at 1-1.
Wilson converted a three-point play with 1:03 remaining to break a tie at 75. After Connecticut’s 17th turnover of the game, Wilson drove to the basket again, bobbled it and made the layup while being fouled. She missed the free throw, but Angel McCoughtry grabbed the rebound and Dearica Hamby made 1 of 2 free throws for an eight-point lead.
DeWanna Bonner led Connecticut with 23 points and seven rebounds.
Golf
DAVIS TO RETIRE AS CEO OF USGA >>
Mike Davis spent the past decade running the USGA, where he set up golf courses to provide an extreme test for elite players and searched for solutions to increasing distance.
Now he wants to build golf courses, a lifelong passion.
Davis announced he will retire as CEO at the end of 2021, ending a 32year career with the USGA that began with him overseeing ticket sales and transportation. He became the seventh executive director in 2011 and the USGA’s first CEO after an organizational shakeup in 2016.
Davis said he will join Tom Fazio II in a new golf architecture firm called Fazio & Davis Golf Design.